Mubarak Loyalists Attack

One day after telling the nation he would not seek reelection—but would not step down—Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak began an orchestrated crackdown on demonstrators in Cairo, culminating in a violent clash between regime forces and protestors in Tahrir Square. The protests began in late January, a little more than a week after Tunisians ousted their-longtime ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. (Check out our real-time updates here.) Here's a collection of on-the-ground photos from the uprising in Cairo.

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The scene from Cairo's Tahrir Square on February 1. As protesters continued to call for Mubarak to step down, the defiant president told the nation he would work "to ensure the peaceful transition of power"—and that he would die on Egyptian soil rather than leave the country.